Financiarul

State secretaries with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE) Bogdan Mazuru and Doru Costea will represent Romania at the meeting of the General Affairs and External Relations Council (GAERC) Meeting that will take place on Monday and Tuesday in Brussels.

‘The meeting will gather ministers of foreign affairs, defence ministers and ministers of development. Romania will be represented in the General Affairs and External Relations section by State Secretary Bogdan Mazuru, whereas for the development component, by State Secretary Doru Costea,’ reads a MAE release sent on Sunday.

The source stresses that the GAERC meeting will start with the General Affairs session, in which foreign ministers will approve the annotated agenda of the winter European Council (December 10-11) and will hold talks on the strategy of sustainable development and post-Lisbon strategy. According to MAE, the agenda of the External Relations meeting includes debates referring to the preparation of high-level meetings EU-Russia and EU-Ukraine, the peace process in the Middle East, as well as aspects on the EU’s civil capacities.

The Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs stresses that due to take place on Tuesday is a joint meeting with ministers of foreign affairs and defence ministers, which will tackle the situation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, operation Althea and the European Security and Defence Policy. Also on Tuesday will be held a session of foreign ministers and development ministers, the main topic being the consolidation of democracy in the external relations of the European Union and Afghanistan, from the outlook of the assistance for development.

MAE stresses that the agenda of the session on Development includes the following topics: climate changes and impact on development, efficiency of official development assistance (ODA), coherence of development policies and the stage of fulfilment of commitments in the ODA field. The Council will adopt decisions on the European Security and Defence Policy, Belarus, as well add the freedom of religion.

The release stresses that due to be organised on the sidelines of the General Affairs and External Relations Council (GAERC) meeting are the Association Council with Jordan, European Economic Area Council, the EU-OSCE meeting, Conference on improvement of civil capacities, Cooperation Council EU-Kazakhstan.